Our objective is to develop a theory which explains and forecasts the trends in divorce rates in the United States. Our particular emphasis will be on the role of changing labor market opportunities available to men and women. The estimated model will be a useful tool with which to predict the future course of marital status, for the purpose of forecasting fertility rates and for the planning of various governmental programs relating to welfare, job retraining, and the provisions of public services generally. The model will be estimated using pooled cross-sections of census data and longitudinal data. Our motivation in using several census data sets is to test the hypothesis that a structural (i.e., attitudinal) change has occurred in the relationship between various socio-economic variables and marital instability.